With cost-of-living pressures shaping household budgets, fitness has become one of the financial burdens people tend to give up or switch to cheaper alternatives, such as walking or buying gym equipment for at-home workouts. A gym membership, a weekly class pack, club registration fees and the gear that goes with them all compete with groceries, rent and energy bills, with the latter being the priority.

In fact, our research has shown that more than half of Australian adults have already changed a fitness habit because of what it costs, most commonly by switching to free alternatives such as running, outdoor training or home workouts.

To understand what it costs to stay fit in Australia, and how those costs are changing behaviour, we analysed AusPlay expenditure data, Australian Bureau of Statistics earnings and Consumer Price Index figures, advertised gym membership pricing from three national chains, and a nationally representative survey of Australian adults. 

• Golf is the most expensive way to stay active in Australia, costing participants an average of $1,545 a year. Meanwhile, the cheapest workout costs $210 for recreational walking. The gap is wider than it looks, because 86.7% of golfers pay to play while just 5.8% of walkers pay anything at all.

• Gyms and fitness studios are the most expensive method of staying active in every state and territory, ranging from $663 a year in South Australia to $1,037 in the ACT. Pilates is the priciest activity within the category at $1,109, 27% more than gym-based fitness at $874.

• The price of staying active has climbed steadily for over a decade, with the cost of sports participation up 36.1% between June 2014 and March 2026. General inflation rose 38.2% over the same period, so fitness has become more expensive broadly in line with the cost of living rather than ahead of it.

• Gym memberships have outpaced that. Over the five years from 2021 to 2026, the ABS Sports Participation CPI rose 21.7%, while the average entry-level rate across three national gym chains rose 25.9%, from $19.31 to $24.32 per week, or approximately $1,264 a year, up from $1,004.

• Older Australians are driving fitness spending. Adults under 35 spend the least of any age group, averaging $1,093 among 18-to-24-year-olds and $1,177 among 25-to-34-year-olds, while spending peaks at $1,678 among 55-to-64-year-olds, a group far less likely to pay to participate at all.

• Adelaide is the most affordable capital city for staying active at 1.37% of median earnings, while Hobart is the least at 2.21%. Hobart's actual fitness costs are among the lowest in the country, making this a result driven by lower median employee earnings ($72,800) rather than by expensive gyms or clubs.

• Cost is already changing how Australians exercise, with more than half of adults (53.3%) having changed at least one fitness behaviour in the past 12 months because of it. Switching to free alternatives such as running or home workouts is the most common response at 17.6%, and 3.5% have stopped exercising altogether.

Adelaide is Australia's best capital city for keeping fit, scoring 81.90 out of 100 in our index. The result is built almost entirely on cost. Adelaide records the cheapest gym and fitness studio costs in the country at $663.28 a year, the cheapest outdoor and active recreation at $235.95, and the second cheapest community sport at $440.41, behind only Darwin. Its cost-to-income ratio of 1.37% is also the lowest of any capital. Access is where Adelaide is beatable, ranking fifth with a score of 55.94 out of 100, recording the lowest public pool density of any capital at 4.36 per 100,000 residents. 

Perth follows a similar pattern, taking second place with a score of 68.76 on the back of having the second cheapest gym and studio costs ($756.95) and the country's highest active green space density (73.75 per 100,000). Brisbane completes the top three at 54.86; it posts the strongest Fitness Access score of any city at 69.90/100, including the highest fitness facility density in the country at 53.29 per 100,000 people and the second highest public pool density at 8.29 per 100,000 residents. Those advantages are partly offset by cost: Brisbane is the second most expensive capital for community sport at $674.71 a year, behind only Melbourne, and the second most expensive for outdoor and active recreation at $387.07, behind only Canberra.

Canberra is the worst place to live for fitness, followed by Melbourne, separated by less than half a point at 36.75 and 37.24. Melbourne has the third best access to fitness in the country with a score of 66.45, including the highest yoga and pilates studio density at 14.66 per 100,000. However, it has the worst Cost and Affordability score of any capital at 17.77/100, driven by the most expensive community sport in Australia at $733.60, which is 71% higher than Darwin. Canberra is the only city where gym and fitness studio costs exceed $1,000, at $1,036.61, and it also records the highest outdoor and active recreation costs at $392.45. Its access score of 54.09 reflects a genuine split: the highest outdoor recreation court density (8.67) and skatepark density (2.06) in the country, alongside the lowest active green space density at 47.25 per 100,000, 36% below Perth.

Golf is the most expensive way to stay active in Australia, costing participants an average of $1,545 per year. Despite an adult participation rate of just 4.6%, 86.7% of golf participants pay to play, meaning the high cost is widely felt across the golfing community rather than concentrated among a small group of big spenders.

Pilates is the most expensive fitness studio activity at $1,109 a year, despite being the second-most- participated studio activity after gym-based fitness. Gym-based fitness costs a mean of $874 per year nationally, making Pilates 27% more expensive for those who pay. Gym-based fitness has an adult participation rate of 34.1%, against 7.2% for Pilates and 5.1% for yoga, which costs $552.

Cycling ranks high in the table at $596 a year, though only 20.3% of cyclists pay anything at all, which suggests that when outdoor activity does involve cost it can be substantial, particularly for those who invest in equipment, club membership and event registration. Soccer costs $540, Australian football $424, cricket $414 and tennis $403.

At the other end, netball costs $315 a year and basketball $373. Swimming costs $300 and recreational walking $210. Recreational walking is Australia’s most-participated fitness activity at 50.2% adult participation, yet just 5.8% of walkers pay anything towards it for things like run club registrations or memberships.

The spread between the most and least expensive paid activity is $1,335, from golf at $1,545 to recreational walking at $210. Within community sport alone, the range runs from golf down to netball and basketball, a difference of over $1,100 for activities that all broadly involve organised participation. This variation within a single fitness category illustrates that the choice of sport, not just the choice between gym, sport and outdoor activity, has a significant bearing on annual fitness costs.

According to the ABS Consumer Price Index, the cost of sports participation rose 36.1% between June 2014 and March 2026, from an index value of 74.38 to 101.24. Over almost 12 years, general inflation as measured by the All Groups CPI rose 38.2%, meaning sports participation costs have risen at a pace in line with the overall cost of living.

This paints a clear picture: the price of staying active has been climbing for over a decade. For Australians already navigating broader cost of living pressures, the compounding rise in fitness costs represents a meaningful additional financial burden, one that AusPlay data shows is now consuming between 1.37% and 2.21% of the typical working Australian’s annual salary, depending on where they live.

Gym memberships have also increased in price significantly over the last five years. 

Comparing the cheapest advertised membership across three national chains, the average entry-level rate rose 25.9% between 2021 and 2026, from $19.31 to $24.32 per week. In annual terms, the average member paying the entry-level rate at one of these chains is now spending approximately $1,264 per year, up from $1,004 in 2021. Over the same five-year window, the ABS Sports Participation CPI rose 21.7%, meaning advertised gym pricing has climbed faster than the broader cost of sports participation.

Annual fitness and sport expenditure rises steadily through mid-life before declining in older age. Adults aged 55 to 64 report the highest mean annual expenditure at $1,678, followed closely by 45-to 54-year-olds at $1,625. This challenges the common assumption that younger Australians drive fitness spending, with adults under 35 spending considerably less, 18-to 24-year-olds averaging $1,093 and 25-to 34-year-olds $1,177. Those aged 35 to 44 spend $1,284, and those aged 65 and over $1,388.

Participation rates tell the inverse story. The proportion of adults who pay anything to participate peaks in the 18 to 24 age group at 63.2%, declining progressively to 39.7% among those aged 65 and over. This means older Australians are less likely to pay for fitness, but those who do pay significantly more, suggesting a concentration of spending among health-conscious older adults who invest more heavily in structured fitness programs.

Across Australia, men who pay for sport and fitness spend more in total annually than women in almost every capital city. Nationally, men spend $1,382 per year compared to $1,282 for women, a gap of $100 or approximately 8%. The gap is the largest in Tasmania, where men spend $1,839 annually compared to $1,394 for women, a difference of $445, or 32%. Victoria is the only state where women outspend men, with women's expenditure coming to an average of $1,512, exceeding the male mean expenditure of $1,455.

Participation patterns differ sharply by activity. Women are more likely to participate in gym-based fitness and studio activities; 35.1% of adult women participate in gym-based fitness compared to 33.1% of men, while pilates (12.9% female versus 1.2% male) and yoga (8.5% versus 1.6%) are strongly female-based. Walking is the most gender-differentiated activity by participation, with 57.8% of women participating compared to 42.5% of men.

Community sport participation is predominantly male. Men participate at higher rates across soccer (8.9% versus 2.5%), golf (7.6% versus 1.7%), basketball (6.8% versus 2.3%), cricket (4.2% versus 0.8%) and Australian football (3.8% versus 1.1%).

Men who pay for fitness tend to spend more, particularly in golf ($1,615 male average versus $1,209 female), pilates ($1,377 versus $1,085), cycling ($676 versus $434) and running ($583 versus $369). The pilates finding is particularly notable, despite male participation rates being one-tenth of female rates; men who do participate in pilates spend 27% more annually than women.

The proportion of adults who pay anything to participate also differs. The ACT leads at 58.3%, followed by the Northern Territory at 57.2% and Western Australia at 54.1%. Nationally, the figure is 52.3%, while South Australia records the lowest share of paying participants at 48.5%.

South Australia records the lowest cost for gym and studio activities ($663) and outdoor recreation ($236), and the second lowest for community sport ($440). At the other end, the ACT has the highest gym and studio costs in the country at $1,037 and New South Wales the second highest at $969, while Victoria is the most expensive state for community sport at $734.

Measuring annual fitness spend against median employee earnings in each state produces a different ranking, and across all three fitness methods no single state ranks consistently least affordable; the least affordable jurisdiction shifts depending on the activity.

Gym and fitness studio costs are the least affordable fitness method in every state and territory, consuming between 0.97% of annual earnings in Western Australia and 1.27% in New South Wales. New South Wales emerges as the least affordable state for gym-based fitness at 1.27%, above the ACT at 1.25% despite the ACT having the highest absolute gym costs ($1,037). This reflects the fact that median NSW earnings ($76,112 annually) are lower than ACT earnings ($83,200), meaning NSW residents must direct a larger share of their income toward gym costs. South Australia and Western Australia are the most affordable states for gym-based fitness at 0.98% and 0.97% respectively.

Victoria stands alone as the only state where community sport exceeds 1% of annual earnings, with residents spending 1.02% of their salary, or $734 annually, on organised sport. The Northern Territory is the most affordable jurisdiction for community sport at just 0.55% of state earnings ($428 annually), benefiting from lower absolute sport costs combined with relatively higher median earnings. Notably, Tasmania and South Australia share the same state earnings ($67,600), but Tasmanian residents spend $479 on community sport compared to $440 in South Australia, making South Australia more affordable despite identical state incomes.

Outdoor and active recreation is the most affordable paid fitness method across all states and territories, but the switch to state earnings reveals Tasmania as the least affordable state for outdoor activity at 0.54% of earnings, marginally above Victoria at 0.53%. This is a direct consequence of Tasmania’s lower state earnings ($67,600) combined with outdoor recreation costs ($367) that are not proportionally lower than larger states. South Australia remains the most affordable state for outdoor activity at 0.35% of earnings, reinforcing its position as Australia’s most financially accessible state for staying active regardless of activity type.

Measured across all sporting activity, Adelaide has the lowest cost-to-income ratio of any capital city at 1.37%, followed by Perth at 1.51% and Brisbane at 1.59%. Hobart records the highest at 2.21%, ahead of Melbourne at 2.03% and Canberra at 1.97%. Hobart is the standout affordability outlier: its gym and studio costs ($798) and community sport costs ($479) are both among the lowest of any capital, yet its residents sacrifice the largest share of their annual salary to stay active, with lower median employee earnings in Hobart ($72,800 annually) the primary driver.

The Fitness Liveability Index ranks Australia's eight capital cities on the cost and accessibility of staying active, combining Cost and Affordability (60% of the overall score) and Fitness Access (40%). Data is drawn from Sport Australia's AusPlay survey, the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Foursquare's open-source places database, and Parkrun Australia.

All city-level data is measured within each city's Greater Capital City Statistical Area (GCCSA), reflecting the full metropolitan area rather than just the inner city. Scores are normalised on a 0–100 scale using min-max scaling, where the best-performing city on each metric scores 100 and the worst scores 0.

Cost data is sourced from the AusPlay Payment to Participate survey (CY2025), which asks Australian adults how much they paid to participate in each activity over 12 months. Figures represent mean annual amounts reported by adults who paid. Those who participated for free are excluded.

Three cost metrics are each a participation-weighted average across a defined basket of activities: Gym and Fitness Studio Cost (gym-based fitness, pilates, yoga), Community Sport Cost (Australian football, basketball, cricket, soccer, netball, tennis, golf), and Outdoor and Active Recreation Cost (running, cycling, swimming, bush walking, recreational walking). The basket is restricted to 15 activities with non-suppressed data across all eight states and territories, applied consistently to every city. Each activity's cost is weighted by its participation rate in that state, so more widely practised activities carry more influence. AusPlay data is published at state level, so each state's figures are mapped to its capital city, which accounts for the majority of the state's population.

The Cost to Income Ratio measures total mean annual fitness expenditure per person (AusPlay) as a percentage of median annual employee earnings at the GCCSA level (ABS, August 2025). Higher ratios indicate lower affordability.

Venue counts for gyms, studios, pools, courts, skateparks, and green spaces are drawn from Foursquare Open Source Places (June 2026 release). Parkrun locations are from Parkrun Australia's published events data. All counts are normalised per 100,000 residents using ABS Estimated Resident Population figures (2025) for each GCCSA.

Seven metrics span two sub-categories: Facility Access and Density (Fitness Facility Density, Yoga and Pilates Studio Density) and Free and Low-Cost Alternatives (Parkrun, Public Pool, Outdoor Recreation Court, Skatepark, and Active Green Space Density). Venue data was deduplicated using exact coordinate matching, fuzzy name matching within 200m, and same-location matching within 100m.

Unless otherwise noted, all supporting data is sourced from AusPlay (CY2025) and reflects mean annual expenditure among adults who paid to participate.

Affordability by State and Method uses the same category costs above as a percentage of state-level median earnings, rather than GCCSA earnings as used in the index — since the underlying AusPlay cost data is itself collected at the state level. Fitness Spending by Gender draws on state-level totals (Payment to Participate by State, filtered by gender) and activity-level figures (Payment by Gender and Participation by Gender). Fitness Spending by Age is sourced from the Payment to Participate by Age table across six adult age groups (18–24 through 65+). Most and Least Expensive Activities is sourced from the Payment Overall table, using mean rather than median expenditure to reflect the full distribution of spending; figures are national only.

Historical price change is measured using the ABS Consumer Price Index, Sports Participation expenditure class (Table 18, Weighted Average of Eight Capital Cities), covering fees for sport participation including gym, lesson, and ground fees. The June 2014 value (74.38) is compared to March 2026 (101.24), a rise of 36.1% over roughly twelve years, alongside the ABS All Groups CPI over the same period.

2021 prices are sourced from the Choice Buyer's Guide for Gym Memberships (August 2021), using the cheapest publicly advertised rate at the time. 2026 prices were collected directly from each chain's website in July 2026 on the same basis — for Jetts, this is a median across 15 sampled locations; for Fitness First and Goodlife, the cheapest 2026 rate was an 18-month contract. All prices are weekly and exclude joining, access card, and administration fees.

Net World Sports commissioned an online survey via PureProfile (July 2026), collecting 1,011 responses from a nationally representative panel of Australian adults by age, gender and state. Respondents could select multiple cost-driven fitness behaviours, so individual percentages sum to more than 100%. State-level findings are reported for NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, and SA only — ACT, NT, and TAS are excluded due to insufficient sample sizes.

AusPlay figures are self-reported and reflect only adults who paid to participate; activities with high rates of free participation, such as walking, reflect the habits of a smaller, more engaged paying segment. The 15-activity basket excludes some activities with real costs, including CrossFit, martial arts, and the rugby codes, so figures represent Australia's most widely practised activities rather than total household fitness spend. Foursquare data may underrepresent smaller or newer operators, and venue counts are indicative of relative access rather than an exhaustive census. State-level AusPlay data mapped to capital cities is a closer approximation for NSW, VIC, and WA than for smaller jurisdictions like Tasmania, the NT, and the ACT.

AusPlay Survey (Sport Australia, CY2025) · ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours (August 2025) · ABS Estimated Resident Population (2025) · ABS Consumer Price Index, Weighted Average of Eight Capital Cities (March 2026) · Foursquare Open Source Places (June 2026) · Parkrun Australia Events Data · Consumer Behaviour Survey via PureProfile (July 2026)